The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1887-10-02
The Place They Have Occupied
in the Nations History.
HOW THEY HAVE FILLED IT.
lie to tho Time of Mrs.
Cleveland.

With the remarkable hold which Mrs.
Cleveland has won for herself in the
love and admiration of her coun5rymen
in view, it is interesting to look in retro.
spect upon the influence which the
noble women who have preceded her
have exerted in the households of the
President and in the public sentiment of
the Nation.
When the incipient struggles for
liberty began in Virginia, with every in
terest at the time pointing toward the
! royal side, Mrs. Washington encour
aged by her approval the activity which
her husband had shown on the colonial
side. When the clouds of disaster end
disappointment lowered over his path
way in the line of public duty she slim
ulated him by words of confidence in
ultimate triumph. In the inauguration
of his administration she gave the social
surroundings of the President prestige
which has been the example for all her
successors.
Although the Federal and anti
Federal leaders made John Adams the
scapegoat of their controversies on the
constitutional constructions and per-
sonaI preferences, Mrs. Adams, as the
lady to first preside over and Inaugurate
the social regime of the then newly -oc
cupied and unfinished Presidents
House" at Washington, in the one brief
season OF her life there left an impress
sion upon the incipient social life of the
Nations Capitol which can never be ef-
faced. o..
Mrs. Madison put the indelible i'm
press of her Womanly presence and in
f1uence upon four administrations.
When Jefferson entered the executive
mansion he had long been a widower
In the absence of his daughter, Mrs.
Randolph, who visited Washington
three seasons during the eight years of
his life in the Presidents Office, Mrs.
Madison, the wife of his Secretary of
state, presided over the SOCIAL affairs of
the executive household. Tie bitter
ness and disappointment occasioned by
the overthrow of the dignitied surround
ings of Washington and Adams, and
the attempt to establish a social COM
mune by Jefferson were greatly relieved
by the tact of Mrs. Madison. When
she became the first lady of the repub-
lie in her own right, she restored the
old Continental school which had been
established by Mrs Washington and
| Mrs. Adams, and made the social life of
the administration of her husband
brilliant and attractive. Even after
his death the prestige of her social
triumphs in the executive mansion
made her public receptions for twelve
years at her own home in Washington
New Years and Independence Days as
| much patroniZed by the distinguished
men and women in pubic aud social
life as were the receptions at the execu-
tive mansion.
During the administration of Monroe
the rancOr of partisan strife began to
disturb the peaceful relations of the
social world at the apita Ct by the
kindly grace of her ma, = I'd her
queenly example, Mrs. Moar made
her husbands life n the L cutive
mansion famous as an era of good feel
ing. Mrs. JOnn Quincy Adams, though
not demons ralve in her social
methods, managed the social affairs of
the Executive household with dignity.
But for Emily Donelson, the niece OF
President Jackson and presiding lady
of his household, the social war which
the old hero had createi through his
championship of Peggy O'NeIl Tim Der
lake Eaton, the wife of his Secretary of
War, for social recognition, would have
r. Mt the Administration to pieces and
the victor of New Orleans and the
fsVorite of the people would have sacri-
feed all the prestige of his military aud
civic spIendor. Angelica Singleton ap-
peared upon the scene as the bride of
The son of President Van Buren, when
That stormy Administration had run
about year. Ibis beautiful daught-r
of South Carolina soon allayed the
tempests of sectional feeling and politl-
cal strife, and closed the social regime
of the times of the "Magician OF Kin
der look" in blaze of giory.
Two wives adorned the social life of
the Ex' cuiive household during the ad
ministratiou of Tyler. Both were
beautiful, and both filed their places |
with great credit to themselves and the |
enj 'yableness of the social surround |
ings Of the Presidents household. The |
first Mrs Tyler left The executive man
sion a corpse at the close of the first |
year, and the second Mrs. Tyler en-
tered it as bride in the last year of the |
administration. The impress of their
brief presence made itself felt. Mrs. |
Polk. quiet sensible, intelligent woman
in her drawing-rooms Gained the storms
of opposition in the forum on the ques-
tons growing out of the war with
Mexico.
While plain Mrs. Taylor was busyipg
herself with the congeniaI domestic
cares of the kitchen and the household,
her daughter Betty grsced the drawing
room OF the new Wnig administration.
After the victorious campaign which
burst upon the public mind at Palo Alto
and eliminated in lustre at Buena Vista,
the little cottage on the banks of the
in the barracks at Batou
Rouge became the object of attraction
to passengers as they tarried on their
voyages up or down that mighty
stream. Here Betty Taylor, the third
and youngest daughter of old Rough
and Ready" rec ived the admirers of
ner father with infinite grace. she
captured all hears. While the veteran
vas carrying the lines of the enemy on
The fields of Texas and Mexico his de-
voted daughter was preparing the way
20 the popular heart and the highest Of
ice in the gift of the people.
When the hero of the early campaig 8
Il Mexico became President his favorIte